Together
by SoulCry
Summary: After Pariah's return and a final battle with our one and only Phantom, Danny finally beats him for good. But at what cost?


I blame this story to a plot bunny that came to me during Chemistry class. This is my first "emo" work I guess. I mean, the main center of this story is the emotions of the character...s. Not the context of it. You can imagine the previous as you want it to. Just stick to the base. 

**

* * *

**

**Together**

A whisper of the wind produced a rustling noise when it played with the orange leaves of Autumn. The leaves floated on the current of air very happily and care-free, direct contrast of the attitude the only person standing nearby had.

A grim silent frown covered a pair of icy-blue eyes, which were covered by a mop of raven hair. The hair waved in the course of the wind, the same as his clothes. A black dress shirt and black pants were impacting continuously against his skin, his black leather boots covered his feet from the dry, cold and orange grass below.

His only companions were a engraved stone and leave-less, thin, rough trees. That and the mute, sorrow-stained gaze of the wind.

"I am here, as I promised. And on your day. There is no one here around except me. One would think no one cares to remember you, but I do, deeply. You touched my heart in a way no one could have ever hoped to. I guess that is today's revelation…" He laughed grimly until the sadness was so overwhelming that he sighed to contain it within him. A bothering and almost inexistent pain throbbed at his throat.

"I always wanted to know, each time we met, why inside me called for your company, craved for it. But reality was too harsh for us to be something more. We just _had_ to put out petty differences first, didn't we? Now, I'd give everything to start all over, knowing what we were losing…" He knelt in front of the engraved stone. He smiled at it, struggling with himself whether to sit or keep standing.

He decided to sit on his knees, not caring at all for the clothes. His mother would yell at him but he was going to ignore it. This was far more important to him than easy-replaceable garments. He knew that if he told his mother that he had stained his clothes sitting in front of a friend's grave, it would effectively silence her, but he wasn't going to spill it.

He stared in ceremonial silence at the stone, carefully reading everything it had. He didn't pass the name when a stump in his throat blocked his reading and mind-processes for long minutes. He knew that he owed her his presence here at the least, but it was hard. Some twisted part of his mind admitted that it should be much harder, and he regrettably agreed with it.

"I never told you this. I could never get enough courage to say those three shocking words until it was too late, always when it was late." He sighed once, untying the knot in his throat. "I loved…No! I _still_ love you. There, I said it. I know you'd probably be crying of happiness if you were here, but it's breaking me by the inside each time I wake up every day and I remember your face. Your beautiful face covered in mud and you slowly passing away on my arms." Tears swelled in his eyes, stinging them. He sobbed and the dam broke. In an instant, he covered his face with his hands and cried like he never had. Taking every ounce of sorrow and pouring them away in the form of tears. He removed his hands after stretching moments of grief.

"Why?" He cried. "Why must I be alone? I hate it! Each time we were near, I felt happy, with no worries in the world. Now that you were stripped from my side, I can't find a welcoming day even if my life depended on it. I miss you horribly…How can I ever be or feel alive when I know you're g-g-gone…?" He stuttered the last word, still refusing to believe totally what happened.

"Sometimes I feel like I'd die twice just to be with you for the rest of eternity…I'm quite desperate, don't you think? But I'd do anything to be at your side once again…Even if that is dying and leaving everything behind…I'd do it for you…Everything for you…" He slumped his head until his chin touched his chest. Silence and pain ruled again.

"You once said that you filled the void in my life, I never understood that until now. Today I feel like my existence is a void…" A vague brush of the wind on his left shoulder stopped him. He knitted his brow, deep in thought for a minute, until a sheepish smile covered his face.

"You heard me, didn't you? I know you did. I was right when I thought I could speak directly to you from here. And now that you are here…I don't know how to go on…" He coughed when a sting came from his stomach. "What am I going to do knowing that you are so close, yet so far? I'm sure I won't be able to hear what you say. I feel like I'm talking to a wall." He curled his lips to a side in a sour manner.

He saw rather than felt the wind ruffling his hair in an almost annoyed attitude. He was no fool. He knew since the word go it was her. "Then what I am supposed to do? Wait in a recluded space my time to go while I mourn you? I can't do that. I can't hold on without you near me much longer…"

The wind died down for long moments until it changed in a way normal currents of air can never act, it began circling around his neck, slowly, hugging him. He knew that she was the one enveloping him and he smiled. It wasn't the whole act as he felt his lips go chilly for an instant. A kiss so weak and soft, yet so passionate.

He had it pretty clear that he was going to melt if she continued administering that kind of treatment to him. He tried giving back the loving embrace with the same amount of emotion, but his hands only encountered air. He let his arms fall to his sides and his hands touch the cold earth, reminder of his pain, just as well as his mood fell. Once again she was so close, yet so far it felt like miles separated them.

His mind started to fall into despair and it produced several schemes and scenarios for him to be again with his lover. Each more wicked than the last. He forced his mind out of that train of thought even if his heart ached and craved to follow at least one of them.

"I am not suicidal. But it hurts so much, what would I give to make the pain go away…my life, it seems a price so low for happiness, eternal happiness…" He whispered to himself through narrowed eyes. His pupils had a glazed state that only added that sad aura to his already depressive look.

He felt himself being "slapped" by the wind, but it did little to no effect. He had his mind set long before he came here. "Why do you try to stop me? Don't you understand that I want the smallest of happiness at least? My life's been a living hell and now it is like it concentrated by a thousand-fold. First, losing you in the battlefield was one of the major hits my heart had. And then losing everyone in town would drive anyone insane, but I held, knowing that if I surrendered to madness, I'd never be again with you…Everything for you…" He was being hard, but she had to understand why he did what he did and why he was going to what he was going to do.

"I visited everyone in the Ghost Zone." He continued. "A part of my heart hoped to find you as well but the rationality of my mind crushed the hope. Everyone was doing ok, but most of them didn't turn into ghosts, instead they became skeletons… But still, you should have seen my parents and Valerie trying to fight ghosts not knowing they were one of them." He smiled at the memory.

"I talked to my sister and she was happy the way she was. She could now understand how ghosts felt and she even joked that she had eternity to writer her essays!" He chuckled. "She told me a theory to talk to you but I modified it and here I am…" The wind caressed his cheek in only a way she could do it. He smiled fondly and felt his legs go weaker at the touch and the sudden bearable pain coming from them.

"But that isn't all. I was over-exposed to the Ghost Zone's rays in my human form…either I find a way to get the energy out of my system or I die in a few…" His watch beeped several times and his face got a mixture of bliss and sourness. "Seconds." He sighed. He could already feel the revolt in his insides and slowly spreading to all over his body. He felt the wind become more agitated and fast, almost desperate.

"There is something else you must know…" He gasped. Was this how it felt to die? "I…I won't become…a ghost since I'm already one…so I'll…skip that…I'll be…" He inhaled as much air as his weakened lungs could store. "Happy…"

He whispered the last living word of Danny Fenton. The Danny Fenton sacrificed so much for his town and almost never getting something in return. The Danny Fenton that only through death could get the ultimate reward and his most adored objective, eternity with the one he loved. The Danny Fenton that did a face-plant on the ground with a victorious smile and glassy, emotion-less eyes.

His first experience when consciousness drifted back to him was pain. Excruciating pain all over his soul. He had lost the ability to touch the world directly. His sustancial existence had ended half-way through the fall against the ground.

But there was a constant, pulsating, sharp pain coming from his cheek. He placed a hand on it to weaken the feeling. That was when he noticed the pale, almost translucent shade of white it had.

He looked curiously ahead and discovered he was still in the graveyard, more accurately, hovering over his now quite-dead body. He could see other pale forms mourning and even crying at other graves. He looked confused, what was going on?

It was in that moment his face was snapped to a side, pain coming from his other cheek instantly. He didn't need to look to understand what happened. She had slapped him, very hard. That froze him for a moment and he hesitantly turned to her. He took a sharp intake of air at the surprise. There she was! In front of him finally! She looked even more beautiful if that was possible since the last time he saw her.

He was torn between crying of happiness or hugging her and not letting her go. But a look at her face made him decide for the third option. He looked down ashamed. He knew she was going to yell at him for a while, but he deserved it. He had acted very selfish.

He braced himself for the barely-supportable volume but instead he was robbed of the ability to breathe. He squirmed for a second, not knowing what was going on. But when his mind registered his surroundings, he kissed her back with at least the same amount of emotion and he embraced her as close as he could.

Never letting go.

Always by her side.

Always Together.

The wind produced by the two lovers removed every trace of dirt, weed and sticks from the gravestone below them, letting everything to be read by whoever wanted to. The following was carved deep in the marble:

"Amber McLain

1984 – 2001

Beloved daughter and sister."

* * *

So, whaddya think? The last bit of the gravestone wasn't going to come out, but I decided to add it since people would ask who was the girl Danny was so in love with. Now, one last thing, if anyone isn't lazy, could someone make the previous thing? As to how Ember got to be a "Good" girl and the return of Pariah? If not, I'll understand. It is not THAT important either. 

Later! Soulcry. 


End file.
